The LINGUIST office is located in Pray-Harrold, one of the many big red-brown brick buildings on Eastern Michigan University campus. I enter the office, carrying my best friend: my laptop. Amy and Tanya sit by the door, so I greet them while checking if there is coffee in the coffee pot. Anthony's desk is there too, but he's usually in a meeting or teaching at Wayne State.

Then begins my journey to my desk at the opposite end of the office. It really is not as much an office as a bent corridor with computer desks lined up in it. Most of my colleagues are usually in by the time I arrive, so I greet them with a 'good morning', even though it is technically closer to noon.

At my desk, I unpack my computer, plug in the cables and boot it up as my shoes come off and I slip into my office sandals. I check my LINGUIST List mail account for anything work related, then I take a look for any new Noticeboard submissions that need taking care of.

After that, I pick up my programming where I left it the previous day. You would be surprised if you knew how many working hours it takes to get all the machinery behind the scenes to work in an organization such as ours. I get to work in several different environments. We program most of our pages in ColdFusion, but I also get to do a lot of SQL and JavaScript. Sometimes there is a meeting that I have to go to, but usually I just sit at my desk hacking away. Every now and then I encounter something that is beyond me, so I go asking Gayathri or Michael. Sometimes people come to me for help. The hours go by, and before I know it I realize that it is five o'clock and I have not had lunch.

I usually leave the office several hours later than I am supposed to. This is something I share with the rest of the crew. We do not work unpaid overtime because we have to, but because we want to. We love our work, and we take pride in doing a good job. We are not in this for the money, but without your donation, LINGUIST can no longer go on. I only hope that all of you out there get to enjoy what we do as well.